


believer

by rangerhitomi



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Canon Divergence, Cardfight!! Vanguard V Series, Deleted Kai Toshiki, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-23 01:46:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19141108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rangerhitomi/pseuds/rangerhitomi
Summary: Maybe Anjou Mamoru can't get Kai's connection to Vanguard back on his own, but he's certainly charming enough to try.





	believer

**Author's Note:**

> mamoru has been in one whole episode of v series but i want him to kiss kai and it won't happen so screw canon imma do it myself

Triple critical. Four damage, five damage, six damage. No heal trigger. Nehalem, Aermo, Dragonic Overlord to the damage zone. Again. Again. Again. Again--

Kai puts his hand to his head to avoid his opponent's pitying stare, the same one he's worn for the past six fights. He's tired, he wants to go home. He's never lost this many times in probably his entire life, not since he was first learning the game and lost to--

Overlord stares up at him from the damage zone, a piece of cardboard with nice art of a dragon on it. That's all his cards are, now; the imagination is gone, and with it, his connection to Cray, to Overlord, to all of his units, to Miwa and Ren and Ibuki and Aichi.

Fingers wrap around his wrist and pull his hand from his face.

Kai finally stares into the face of Anjou Mamoru, all frowns and worry lines, mouthing something that Kai can't make out because he can't focus on anything but the overwhelming loss in what's left of his soul. Concern, maybe, or pity, or both, but he's only known Anjou for a few weeks and he's not about to let a stranger pry.

He gathers his cards, excuses himself, and leaves.

* * *

 

Overlord to the drop zone.

Again and again and again, day after day after day, and maybe it wouldn't be so easy for Anjou to find him if he didn't nap on the same park bench every afternoon, but it's a comforting location out of the sun, and the small children who frequent the park know to leave him alone, so he continues to nap after school and sometimes instead of going to school and Anjou keeps waking him up with his annoyingly cheerful smile and polite  _ good afternoon, Kai-kun _ .

_ Why won't you leave me alone,  _ Kai asks one day but Anjou doesn't have a reason beyond  _ I'm having fun playing with you. _

Fun, at Kai's expense, Kai thinks; he hadn't pinned Anjou for the kind of guy who would have fun beating an obviously inferior opponent, a thought that hurts worse than Kai thinks it will.

And Anjou  _ is  _ good,  _ very  _ good. It's no wonder Daimonji Gouki and Mitsusada Kenji are excited to have him on their team. At Kai's very best, before being Deleted, Anjou would have given him difficulty; as he is now, beating him is an impossible fantasy.

Kai envies Anjou's bond with Blademaster. He plays it flawlessly, every time, unlike Kai, who hesitates on when to use Overlord's skill, or can never hit a trigger when he tries.

"Kai-kun," Anjou says hesitantly as Kai carelessly tosses his sixth card in the damage zone and begins to collect the rest of his deck, "don't you love your deck?"

Kai pauses and looks up without saying anything.

"What I mean is," Anjou amends, shifting on the bench, "is that, I see you trying to connect to it but you're missing something."

Tetsu had already explained the concept of Deleting to the Harumi Vanguard fighters and Kai doesn't feel like explaining, yet again, that his bond with his deck had been ripped away from him. "It doesn't matter."

"It does." Anjou grabs him by the wrist. They glare at one another, Kai wondering how rude he was going to have to be to get Anjou to back off, but Anjou clearly has something to say and Kai supposes he'll humor him this one time. "I've heard so much about you, admired you for so long... Kai Toshiki, the Solitary Fighter, the best Kagero fighter in Japan... I wanted to meet you, to fight you, but you're not..."

"I'm not living up to your expectations," Kai finishes for him. That's fine. He's not living up to his own expectations, either. He tugs his wrist free of Anjou's grip and returns his deck to its case. "Then why not just let me be? Leave me alone and find someone else to admire."

"No."

Kai stares at him. Anjou stares back.

"What?"

"Not until you beat me," Anjou says confidently. "I'll bother you every day until then."

Kai  _ tsks.  _ "We don't even go to the same school. What makes you think you'll be able to find me every day?"

"You've been here on this bench every day for the past three weeks," Anjou says simply, and Kai clenches his jaw. "I think that you really wanted to fight me, or you wouldn't be here, and you wouldn't bring your deck with you."

The deck in his hand is a heavy weight. It's a burden he needs to overcome, a connection he wants desperately to remake. If he could... if this other Kagero fighter could help...

He takes his deck out of its case and sets it on the bench between them. Anjou smiles.

Several of their plays mirror the other's, until Anjou reaches Blademaster and things deviate. Kai takes the attack for two damage, but checks a heal trigger for the first time.

"Oho, lucky. Turn end."

They continue on. Kai pulls a double critical at one point, but upon re-standing, Anjou is able to block what might have been the finishing blow.  _ So close _ , Kai thinks, and it’s maddening and frustrating and disheartening all at once, not to be able to secure victory the way he used to. 

But worst of all is that, every time he touches Overlord’s card, images flash through his mind like an old film reel; images of him fighting Aichi, and Miwa, and Ren, and Ibuki, and in the end it’s the reminder of the pain he felt when Ibuki ripped him from his avatar that causes him to gasp and slam his hand onto the bench. 

Anjou reaches for him, reflexively. Kai shakes his head and shoves him back. “No, no, just… end it.”

The thrill of the fight has left Anjou, as it has left Kai, and when Kai places Dragonic Overlord The Great in his damage zone -- the sixth damage -- Kai slams his fist down again. 

They sit in silence, save for the sound of children running around the playground. Kai has his head in his hands, but the images keep flashing, a film he can’t turn off, and he doesn’t realize he’s shaking until he feels a hand on his back. 

It’s Anjou. He sits so close their thighs touch. 

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help much, in the end.”

Kai shakes his head. “It’s not your fault.”

“I felt it, for a second. You connected.” Anjou tilts his head. His hand is still there, on the small of Kai’s back. “I could feel it. I could feel Overlord.” 

There’s nothing Kai can say to that. He didn’t feel the connection, just the severance. But Anjou insists when Kai tries to deny it, and he doesn’t have much energy left to dispute it. 

“Do you want to fight again? Tomorrow?”

Kai breathes heavily. “I guess.”

“Hey.”

Anjou leans in and touches his lips to Kai’s. The sensation of Anjou’s soft, full lips on his lasts only a few seconds, but it shoots a series of new feelings through Kai’s body: confusion, embarrassment, apprehension, nervous excitement. 

When Anjou stands, he smiles down at Kai. “It’s not a lost bond, Kai-kun. I feel it. Maybe I can help you get it back someday.”


End file.
